TLS Brochure 2014

TLS 2014 Trustee Leader Scholar Program

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL ACTION

Bard

One scorching July afternoon we sit under a tree and the children tell us devastating stories about their home lives: stories of fathers missing, mothers beaten, kids abused. That evening we come together and with tears flowing, talk about our inability to grapple with so much pain coming from such small mouths. We discuss urban poverty and ways in which New Orleans is both unique and unremarkable among American cities. We imagine solutions, starting with repair of a broken educational system. At least we provide a moment for the Wilson teachers to take a rest from disciplining so they can actually teach. Maybe we make it easier for a few to pass the standardized tests that hold so many back. This matters to us. But the most important part of our summer is this late-night conversation. We realize that we are just part of a momentary miracle. We are entering a lifelong conversation that we will take with us into the world when we become members of communities.

MAUREEN CRITTENDEN ’10, NEW ORLEANS EXCHANGE She is finishing a master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York.

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Front cover image: Tara Canney ’14 teaching English in Nicaragua

Theme for the Year: Humble and Responsible Here’s a favorite fact of mine. All the matter in the cosmos was once compressed into an object the size of a garden pea: all the stars and moons, galaxies and asteroids, all the light and dark, the ice cream and molten lava and horizons, supernovas, and strip malls, canyons, rivers, sand dunes, and evergreens, all the nebulae and constellations, movie theaters, mountain passes, and meteors. Once upon a time it was all one dense pebble no bigger than a pencil eraser. Then it expanded. Now, getting to the nearest star at the speeds our current rockets generate takes about 700,000 years. That’s a lot of expansion, and a lot of space. And it goes all the way in and down too. Even at the subatomic level, it’s about 700,000 clicks between microparticles. When it comes to atoms, molecules, elements, minerals, dirt, bodies, blood, and brains, there just isn’t much there there. The cosmos is fundamentally empty.

For a moment, this morning, sitting at my desk looking out the window at the waning late fall; leaves past their prime—brown ones clinging, barely, to brittle branches; grass starting to brown out; Toby on the huge riding mower for the last time this year, all bundled with ear muffs and thick gloves; sky neither gray or blue—without distress or angst, I remember, happily, what a quirky accident it is to be alive and to have consciousness. I am I in a nearly infinite expanse of time and space. I will not be me for an infinity—minus the infinitesimally small cosmic moment that is me.

You may be thinking, “Quirky accident, infinitesimally small cosmic moment; wow, what a depressing way to look at life!” But for me it is not. For me this creates courage and energy. Life is not “just an accident;” I am excited by my belief that it is just an accident!

Okay, what does accidental consciousness mean for the TLS program?

(Yes, I am getting there). “Somehow” (a perfectly acceptable word for god, according to my many religious friends) we humans have the capacity to be aware of consequences. I think it’s the most wonderful trick ever. We plan and act, remember and evaluate. We reconvene, retool, then act again.

Over and over we affect the stuff around us, and we know it. As we stir the cream in our coffee, we know the shade of brown will lighten. We drop an atomic bomb on a small city and we know the buildings will disappear.

We transform black ooze into kinetic energy, we alter the atmosphere, and the most violent storm ever recorded blows across Asia (Typhoon Haiyan, November 6, 2013, Philippines). We release our wrist at just the right moment, the ball swishes through the net. We choose.

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I think for many the notion of our cosmic insignificance is depressing and paralyzing. But for me it is the call to action. I observe that what individuals do makes a difference, great and small. Not just the Einsteins and Martin Luther Kings, but our kindergarten teachers and farmers and electricians.

The ripple effect of small actions can be potent. I believe I have the power to make something go right in my world today. Nothing in the nothingness is going to make it so for me. It is my responsibility, and I happily accept the challenge.

In TLS we do not dwell on what cannot be done, on what a daunting, overwhelming, impossible, enervating, discouraging task it is to educate, feed, and house everyone. In the face of cosmic emptiness, having the capacity to make a difference is a spectacular quirky happening. What else is there to do but do good?

We are not naïve. We do our homework about the history and consequences of difference. We do not ignore racism, classism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and all the other ways that human beings have found to oppress each other. But we are not paralyzed by our understanding. We consider and weigh and act as precisely as we can to make a positive difference. Is it enough?

Last night on NPR an astronomer from the University of California, Berkeley, spoke about the number of life-sustaining planets that might exist in the Milky Way, our home galaxy, one of millions of galaxies in the known universe. Planets do not radiate light or microwave energy, and until recently have been hard to detect. Think about finding a few grains of salt buried on a wide sandy beach. It’s easy to detect stars like our beloved Sol and its nuclear fusion–infused cousins twinkling brightly in the night sky (every second on the sun there are six trillion explosions the size of a nuclear bomb). But planets hide. Over the years a few likely candidates have been identified here and there, but no one has really been sure if we were the only habitable speck in the universe. With the development of new equipment in recent years, we have a better count. The UC Berkeley astronomer says, “Of the 40 billion or so planets in the Milky Way, only about 10 percent of them are rocky and could have atmospheres and water, the conditions that might make life possible.” Then he laughs, remarks that the hair on his neck is standing up, and says, “That’s still four billion planets that might have life on them!”

In TLS we do what we can do. We continue doing it. We cannot stop.

Paul Marienthal Director, Trustee Leader Scholar Program 4

Students engage with TLS leaders during a fair on campus

Every week when I go to prison, I walk down many hallways all freshly mopped by inmates. Sometimes I walk, in my dirty boots, by the men mopping. I have to walk these halls to get to the room where I tutor, but I feel so bad dirtying the floor.

MAIDA IVES ’08, BARD PRISON INITIATIVE VOLUNTEERS She is a classroom teacher in New York City.

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Trustee Leader Scholar Program The Trustee Leader Scholar Program (TLS) of Bard College supports undergraduate and leadership development in the context of hands-on, studentinitiated community engagement projects.

What is TLS? The Trustee Leader Scholar Program is the formal civic engagement and leadership development program for undergraduate students at Bard College. TLS supports the liberal arts mission of enlightened citizenship: personal development in the context of community building.

Who is in TLS? Every Bard student is eligible to apply to TLS, and TLS students come from every academic discipline on campus. Approximately 40 undergraduates participate in the program at any given time, and most TLS students remain actively involved in the program throughout their college careers.

What do TLS students do?

TLS students design and implement social action projects based on their own compelling interests. For example, they run poetry writing programs in local prisons; build biodiesel processors on campus; run summer camps for Palestinian children in the West Bank; provide music lessons for economically challenged teenagers in local middle schools; build houses in hurricane-ravaged Nicaragua; and act as teachers’ aides in rebuilding New Orleans. TLS students write extensive proposals, budgets, and personal accounts of their activities. They meet one-on-one with program administrators and attend workshops to explore issues in social action, public speaking, and facilitation. TLS students also raise their own funds, and many become proficient letter-writing campaign organizers.

What makes TLS special?

Many colleges provide volunteer and community service opportunities.

Bard is one of the few that puts substantial resources and trust behind student-led initiatives. Students must initiate the work. The fundamental criterion for accepting a project is that it must contribute positively to the world and challenge the student—organizationally, ethically, politically, and emotionally.

What are some key values in TLS? TLS addresses the issues of paternalism and privilege that are stirred up by the notion of “helping others.” Students are encouraged to read widely about oppression, identify their own motivations and needs, and

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experiment with ways of organizing that treat other people as partners, not passive recipients. We try hard to strike a balance between inward reflection, societal awareness, and compassionate action. TLS considers this life training. We also say “yes” a lot.

What is the ultimate goal of TLS? TLS strives to put into the world capable, sensitive adults who have the ability to generate, plan, fund, and implement large-scale projects that matter and that influence environments humanely. Many TLS students leave Bard capable of creating their own nonprofit organizations. A number of important College initiatives began as student projects in the TLS Program, including the Bard Prison Initiative, Bard Early College in New Orleans, and the award-winning Spanish-language magazine La Voz. How does TLS differ from similar programs?

TLS is a leadership development program, not a community service office.

TLS students do not earn academic credit for their efforts; for their participation, TLS program members receive stipends and transcript recognition. Separating TLS work from academics allows participating students to design and implement ambitious civic engagement projects spanning multiple years. TLS recognizes that organizing a major project while completing Bard’s rigorous academic requirements is a demanding load, and is not for everyone. It is worth noting, however, that many TLS students have said, “My project was the most important thing I did in college.”

How do you apply to the TLS Program?

TLS applications are considered on a rolling, year-round basis. The best way to start the process is to talk with TLS staff members, who are always open to hearing the words, “I have a TLS project.” Students are encouraged to consider TLS from the moment they arrive on campus.

How can you help if you are not a Bard student?

Making contacts and building networks are crucial to every project’s success. TLS flourishes because of the enthusiasm of Bard students, faculty, and administrators, as well as community members outside of the academic environment who generously give their time, creative energy, and financial support.

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In the classroom with the Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative

Current Projects Astor Home for Children Bard Volunteers The Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, New York, is a residential school for children who have experienced emotional and/or physical trauma. Bard students become mentors and positive role models for the children at the Astor Home, volunteering for a semester at a time and leading a range of activities for one hour each week. Activities are usually taught in a oneon-one setting, and range from creative writing and cooking to pottery and science projects; the activities depend on the shared interest of the Bard volunteer and Astor student. The goal is to help the children develop their passions and learn skills, and ultimately recognize that they are worth others’ time and energy.

Student Leaders: Serena Accomazzi, Hallie Greenberg, and Helen Wippick Astor Home for Children Theater Group The project offers the opportunity for children at the Astor Home to experience the joys of theater. The Astor Home functions as a school and space of rehabilitation, providing mental health services to children in New York.

Once a week, Bard students teach a theater class to a group of children at the home. The classes vary, from improvisation to writing personal monologues. The project serves as an opportunity for children to be part of a safe, fun environment in which they can enjoy being themselves and also learn. This program helps children who are overcoming obstacles in their lives to feel appreciated, listened to, and acknowledged.

Student Leaders: Serena Accomazzi, Hallie Greenberg, and Helen Wippick Bard Biodiesel Cooperative The Bard Biodiesel Cooperative makes environmentally friendly fuel from community waste. The co-op works with Chartwells (Bard’s dining hall operator) and local restaurants to acquire waste vegetable oil. The oil is made into biodiesel in our on-campus processor and can be used in place of petrodiesel in vehicles, home furnaces, and farm equipment. Biodiesel is virtually carbon neutral and emits fewer particulate emissions than petrodiesel. Members of the cooperative not only receive a share of the fuel, but also a hands-on education in biodiesel processing. The fuel is also sold at chemical cost to members of the Bard community. The co-op makes alternative energy a reality.

Student Leader: Yangstsho Gyaltshen

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Bard Branches Community Center The Bard Branches Community Center is a comprehensive afterschool and community engagement project. We provide tutoring, mentoring, and creative education programs for middle school students in Red Hook and Germantown. Bard Branches engages a number of other Bard TLS projects and clubs in its mission to provide alternative creative education programs to students who otherwise wouldn’t have access to afterschool education opportunities. In addition to our work in the schools, we organize community events to connect Bard students with local families, and a summer program on the Bard campus.

Student Leaders: Gabriela Philo and Sylvia Estes BardBuilds BardBuilds gives students the opportunity to work on architectural and urban planning projects, both on and off campus. BardBuilds sets the stage for students to put into practice theories learned in academia and go beyond the classroom in order to gain experience through hands-on application. Our liberal arts education is a privilege; BardBuilds gives us the opportunity to share our expertise and skills with the surrounding community. BardBuilds matches a student’s interest with a specific project at a local organization. There are three categories of participation: architecture, urban design, and urban planning. Based on the student’s focus area, he or she will volunteer for the city of Kingston, Scenic Hudson, or on the Bard campus. The work includes mapping (drafting and digital), designing models and drawing sketches, writing grants, and preparing historical preservation data. Student leaders organize on-campus workshops to train students so that they approach local communities with specific planning and design skills.

Student Leaders: Lia Soorenian and Shireen Khan Bard College Community Garden The Bard College Community Garden, a haven for agricultural enthusiasts since 1997, will be used to demonstrate permaculture design, which addresses food scarcity, diminishing space, and soil depletion and uses nature’s biological processes to create regenerative long-term food systems. This project is intended for Bard students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of neighboring communities. Workshops will be held on a variety of topics including natural building, herbal healing, and diverse methods of plant care. The ultimate goal is for the garden to serve as a hub for sustainable and conscious living practices for Bard and the greater community and to connect sustainable food systems to the local disenfranchised populace.

Student Leader: Antonia Perez 10

Bard Food Initiative From earth to table to earth again, every step of the way, we are resolved to make tomorrow a sustainable and fair food future. We, the students of Bard College, have committed ourselves to building our awareness of the impact that our methods of food production, procurement, and preparation have on our health, our society, and our planet. Every day, the students of the Bard Food Initiative learn how we can best support the poor family farmers of the world, environmentally sound practices of food production, humane treatment of animals, and the Hudson Valley economy. Then, we make the decision to do it.

Student Leaders: Carter Vanderbilt and Alyssa Freeman

“This isn’t real math!” When we start at a new library or school, that’s what we always hear. A few weeks ago we hosted a competition at the College and 86 students showed up with almost twice as many parents. Some of them had to drive two hours to get here. We do not need to dress up math to make it look “fun,” a generally meaningless word.

When we give kids a really good puzzle, they want to solve it.

JAKE WEISSMAN ’15, BARD MATH CIRCLE

Bard Leprosy Relief Project The Bard Leprosy Relief Project is dedicated to the global efforts of eradicating the ancient yet curable disease of leprosy. We support an ecovillage in Kathmandu, Nepal, where people suffering from leprosy seek refuge and medical attention. This ecovillage, the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco-Foundation (KRMEF), serves not only as a place for lepers to recover but also supports a vibrant community of conscientious thinkers and activists. Buildings have low environmental impact. Solar cookers are used to prepare meals, organic gardens take the place of empty government lots, Waldorf-trained teachers fill the run-down schools, jewelry from soap nuts and other handicrafts are carefully made by people with leprosy, and a clinic provides free biomedical and alternative treatments for the whole community. Members of our group have been to Nepal to work at the KRMEF. We have helped to build an orphanage with eco-architecture methods (using glass bottles and a mix of mud and clay); we have also established a village library. A main focus was collecting books from institutions in Kathmandu Current Projects | 11

and making the furniture for the library by working with a local carpenter.

The Bard Leprosy Relief Project primarily operates from afar. Students sell handicrafts made by lepers from the ecovillage on campus to raise funds as well as educate fellow students about leprosy and its implications in Nepal.

Student Leaders: Akshita Bhanjedo and Vitor Carvalho Bard Math Circle The Bard Math Circle is a mathematics enrichment program for upper elementary and middle school students, families, and teachers. We invite students and teachers to the Bard campus and travel to local libraries and schools in order to facilitate a partnership between the college and the surrounding community. Activities such as games, puzzles, and problem sets are presented to participants in an enthusiastic and encouraging manner, allowing students, educators, and volunteers to explore mathematics outside of the typical school curriculum. Both creative, hands-on approaches and teamwork are highly encouraged, introducing a stimulating community aspect to a subject often thought to be dull and isolating. The Bard Math Circle bridges the gap between academic and recreational mathematics; critical thinking skills learned with us are applicable both at school and in general. Learn more at: bardmathcircle.org.

Student Leader: Jake Weissman

After five full days of pulling chest-high weeds out of a Palestinian graveyard—and looking at my tattered hands wondering “for what?”—I look up and see a mother, for the first time in years, have the opportunity to sit by her son’s tombstone and say a prayer.

JASON TONEY ’16, BARD PALESTINIAN YOUTH INITIATIVE

Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative The Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative (BPYI) is founded upon the belief that constructive civil engagement, cultural exchange, and education are fundamental means to changing the situation on the ground in the Palestinian territories. Every year, 20 Bard College students travel to Mas’ha, a small village in the West Bank where, in partnership with the local community, we run children’s summer camps and community engagement projects,

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Creating personal connection with Building Up Hudson

teach English classes, and join in cultural discourse. The only entirely student-run Palestinian engagement program in the Unites States, BPYI is part of the Sister Cities Project working to establish a relationship—between Red Hook (the town where Bard is located), an Israeli town near Nazareth, and Mas’ha—that is grounded in a dialogue of artistic expression between the youth of three towns.

Student Leaders: Zelda Bas, Harrison Liddle, and Ameer Shalabi Bard Prison Initiative Volunteers The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) creates the opportunity for incarcerated men and women to earn a Bard College degree while serving their sentences. Current Bard undergraduates support BPI by tutoring incarcerated students in a wide range of subjects—including writing, German, Chinese, calculus, and biochemistry. BPI undergraduate tutors are very qualified in their subjects and are constantly bettering their teaching skills through monthly tutoring workshops. BPI and undergraduate volunteers collaborate to sponsor speakers, workshops, and conferences in order to spread campus awareness of the issues of mass incarceration in the United States.

Student Leaders: Alix Diaconis and Katy Schneider

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Bard Science Outreach The Bard Science Outreach (BSO) is a student-run project that aims to promote science education among middle and high school students in the Hudson Valley region. Each semester, BSO organizes visits from local schools to Bard’s Annandale campus to participate in science experiments led by Bard students and professors. BSO hosts and participates in many other community activities, such as mentoring students with independent science projects and working with the Citizen Science program or other TLS projects, such as the Math Circle, to develop other outreach opportunities. Bard Science Outreach strives to make science approachable and enjoyable through involvement in scientific activities, and welcomes participation from both science majors and those simply interested in science.

Student Leader: Leila Duman Building Up Hudson Students in Building Up Hudson tutor and mentor high school students in Hudson, New York. We lead workshops catering to career development, college preparation, and college admissions; personal skill building; and positive personal expression. We also raise funds for Building Up Hudson scholarships for eligible high school seniors who could not otherwise afford college. The Building Up Hudson staff, consisting of the College mentor team, publicity squad, and fund-raising committee, is a team dedicated to the personal and academic growth of the young scholars we work with. We hope to instill values that will foster confidence for impacting the world.

Student Leaders: Durante Barringer, Karimah Shabazz, and Jonathon White Colón Music Festival The Colón Music Festival, in the small city of San Juan de Colón in the Venezuelan mountains, brings music to people who do not easily access live classical performance. Seventeen students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music and Longy School of Music of Bard College traveled to Venezuela for two weeks in August 2012, to teach music lessons and master classes and give concerts for the community. Bard students participated in the creation of the Colón Music Festival Orchestra, with 100 young student musicians from states across Venezuela. The first Colón Music Festival reached 300 young people and large, enthusiastic audiences; performances with the Venezuelan students were broadcast in Táchira state. The governor of Táchira publicly honored the Bard students as distinguished visitors for their extraordinary service in Venezuela.

Student Leader: Leonardo Pineda

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Community Expressive Arts Project The Community Expressive Arts Project (CEAP) focuses on community art making that supports the process of finding a personal, creative, and empowering voice of expression through visual arts, movement, theater, music, poetry, and play. CEAP members use the expressive arts to interact with children, teen, and adult community members who struggle with personal challenges to explore the emotional content of their lives. Members attend on-campus expressive arts training workshops led by professional practitioners and educators to equip themselves with the knowledge and confidence to design and implement their own workshops at sites such as the Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, New York; the Center for Spectrum Services in Kingston, New York; Red Hook Residential Center in Red Hook, New York; and Ferncliff Nursing Home in Rhinecliff, New York.

CEAP members have also traveled to work with children in Colombia, Ghana, India, Myanmar (Burma), New Orleans, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Student Leaders: Brooke Kipling, Nell Ostow, Laura Thompson, Adrienne Vitullo

He places his hand over one of my eyes, stares at the other, and brings his face close to mine while instructing me to blink. He watches as my pupils dilate and shrink when his hand covers and uncovers my eye. I am connected to him; we have reached an understanding of one another through this touching and seeing.

Later, I realize his fingers have left paint from our workshop on my face, framing the eye whose motions he had been so engrossed in earlier. Presented to me as a boy who was “in serious need of socialization,” I now feel as though he has revealed to me a truer version of himself.

ADRIENNE VITULLO ’14, COMMUNITY EXPRESSIVE ARTS PROJECT from her work at the Center for Spectrum Services

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Young people using the new library funded and built by students in the Nicaragua Education Initiative

Conversations on Class The project explores class and the social roles it creates by generating dialogue among Bard students. We discuss the way class operates on campus and within the community. We combine talk with acts of civic engagement that include working at a local soup kitchen and helping the nonprofit organization Midnight Run organize churches, schools, and other groups to gather supplies (food, toiletries, and the like) and transport the items to New York City, where they are distributed to those in need. Midnight Run’s mission statement says it doesn’t propose a solution to homelessness, but aims to “forge a bond between the housed and the homeless.” And finally—because mass incarceration has become a nexus for the manifestation of class conflict in the United States—we hope to assist prisoners with recording CDs and DVDs of bedtime stories for their children. The goal is for students to think thoughtfully and critically about class in an open and engaged way by approaching the matter from various modes of involvement.

Student Leaders: Corinna Cape and Emily Parker

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Germantown Tutoring Program College students work closely with teachers in third-, fifth-, and sixth-grade classrooms at the Germantown Central School District. Tutoring in a variety of subjects with diverse teachers allows Bard students to engage in classrooms of all shapes and sizes. The Bard Germantown project is ideal for students interested in teaching because it allows students to observe and engage in elementary school classrooms on a weekly basis. For the Germantown students, our project presents an opportunity to build relationships with college students who can inspire them to be interested in higher education and learning. Germantown, New York, is an area with an incredible amount of need. The high drop-out rate at the school motivates Bard students to lend a hand to the local community. The impassioned and hardworking teachers also continually motivate us to give our time to the amazing Germantown kids.

Student Leader: Julia Jardine

Imagine being an immigrant in a culture very different from your own, where you do not speak the language, you cannot speak to your kid’s teacher, cannot get proper medical attention, cannot understand the laws. La Voz is not only trying to reach out to these people by providing information and entertainment, but it is also trying to make the voice of the immigrant heard.

MONA MERLING ’09, A ROMANIAN STUDENT WRITING IN ENGLISH ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE OF WRITING IN SPANISH FOR LA VOZ She is a doctoral math student at the University of Chicago.

Hudson Basketball Clinic The Hudson Basketball Clinic brings together members of the Bard College men’s and women’s basketball teams and children at the Hudson Middle School Afterschool Program in Hudson, New York. The volunteers help with homework, provide tutoring, and run a weekly basketball clinic. The clinic is both fun and instructional, with basic concepts that are meant to carry over into the classroom. Many of the attributes a successful athlete needs—discipline and hard work—are also necessary for success in most areas of life. The hope is that by stressing these qualities in both athletic

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and educational settings, the Hudson students begin to control their everyday lives and consider higher education. By showing the kids options and bringing them to Bard as often as possible, the program broadens the horizon for young people who are often left out of educational opportunity.

Student Leader: Patrick Lichtenstein

On entering my kindergarten classroom at Wilson, a pre-K student—who never left my side during summer camp, who always had to hold my hand—shyly approaches me.

I bend down to be close to him. “Hello Cyrin! Remember me?” He smiles sheepishly, locking a pair of tiny hands around my arm. “You’re back Mr. Max,” he says in his little raspy voice filled with radiance. The return of Bard volunteers year after year positions us as adults who occupy a place different than a teacher—we are role models and mentors, but most of all friends, older students creating bonds and promoting the desire to learn and grow together.

MAX GAVRICH ’14, NEW ORLEANS EXCHANGE

La Voz La Voz is a Spanish-language magazine, distributed monthly throughout New York’s Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, and Columbia counties, which elevates the discourse and news coverage available to the Spanish-speaking population of the Hudson Valley. This project involves continual dialogue with the communities served by the magazine. La Voz is a critical source of information on immigration law, available health services, legal rights and resources, educational opportunities, and local events relevant to the more than 106,000 Hispanic/Latino area residents (almost 80,000 of whom prefer to speak Spanish at home). Bard students work directly with editor Mariel Fiori ’05 on all aspects of the magazine’s production, from illustration and reporting to community outreach and distribution (5,000 copies to almost 400 locations in about 20 towns every month). Fiori began the magazine with Emily Schmall ’05 as a TLS project while an undergraduate at Bard. After graduation, Fiori was hired by the College to publish La Voz on a permanent basis. In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011, the magazine received the Ippie Award for best overall design from the New York Community 18

Media Alliance (formerly the Independent Press Association of New York).

In 2008, La Voz was recognized by A.H.O.R.A. (Association for Hispanics to Obtain Resources & Assistance), a Poughkeepsie-based organization focused on aiding Hispanic residents. In 2010, La Voz was awarded a Special Citation from the Dutchess County Executive’s Arts Awards.

Student Leaders: Andrés Martinez de Velasco and Lara Merling Administrative Contact: Mariel Fiori New Orleans Exchange Since 2005, the New Orleans Exchange has strived to empower New Orleanians working to rebuild their city as a more just, equitable, and sustainable place. An entirely student-run program, the Bard New Orleans Exchange’s members have traveled to New Orleans each year since Hurricane Katrina. More than 500 Bard students have worked to meet the needs of local communities through close partnerships with organizations such as the Broadmoor Improvement Association, McDonogh 35 High School, Andrew H. Wilson Charter School, and Bard Early College in New Orleans. Students have gutted buildings and provided summer remediation programs for high school students striving to make up for class time lost to the storm; biannually surveyed existing property damage in the Broadmoor neighborhood and created geographic information system (GIS) maps of spatial concentrations of specific needs; provided tutoring and facilitated arts workshops for children in elementary and middle schools; and worked at Andrew H. Wilson school as teachers’ aides and begun a yearlong Bard student–to–Wilson student dialogue that promotes literacy and cultural exchange. In addition, upwards of 30 Bard graduates have moved to New Orleans after their senior year to continue the work they encountered through this project.

Student Leaders: Max Gavrich and Ginny Hanusik Nicaragua Education Initiative The Nicaragua Education Initiative focuses on specific educational projects that empower youth and community members in the town of Chacraseca, a rural community in western Nicaragua. For more than 10 years, Bard students have been going to Chacraseca for three weeks in January and living with members of the community. Throughout our relationship with Chacraseca, this project has gone from hurricane relief to focusing on ways to create a form of sustainable education. We tutor community members in English ranging from 5 to 21 years old and organize art projects as a means of creative expression. We strive to maintain a presence within the community even when we are back at Bard, through continuous fund-raising for scholarships and supporting an English teacher in Chacraseca on Current Projects | 19

the weekends. Our project endeavors to provide community members with the opportunity to achieve an education and gives Bard students a unique perspective on both the similarities and differences of a new culture.

Student Leaders: Tara Canney and Kay Schaffer The Old Gym Project The Old Gym is Bard’s only student-run performance space; located on the central campus, it is a converted black-box theater with all the amenities of an amateur theater. Supervised by professional lighting and sound designer John Musall (former head of lighting at Bard’s Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts), the Old Gym’s mission is to provide a safe, multipurpose space for any students (dancers, actors, directors, musicians, photographers, visual artists, filmmakers—both major and nonmajor) to create radical, visionary work and share that work with the Bard community.

Student Leaders: David Bull, Meg Gilbert, and Audrey Rosenblith

I duck as a felt marker flies past my head. This kid really does not want to read. Spanish is his first language, and English comes very hard for him. Yet every week his vocabulary improves and I see him try to suppress a grin when he conquers a new word. Remembering that he really does want to learn, I pick up the marker, put my arm around his shoulders, and help him sit back down to read. At the end of the day, he is in the corner turned away from me with a book hidden in his lap, and I see that he is smiling.

BEN POWERS ’14, YOUNG RHINEBECK YOUTH PROGRAMS: LIFE, LANGUAGE, AND LEARNING

Red Hook English as a Second Language (ESL) Center The Red Hook ESL Center brings English-speaking and immigrant community members together in Red Hook, New York, through free drop-in English classes. Organized and staffed by Bard students and community volunteers, the center serves a diverse and emerging population in the Hudson Valley. The project seeks to create a comfortable learning environment for community members who might feel isolated by limited English proficiency. By providing them with language skills, we support their efforts 20

Young Rhinebeck Youth Program at Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Community Expressive Arts Project

to participate in both the local community and the larger American society with greater confidence and knowledge. At the same time, the center creates a space in which students and tutors build relationships with members of their community—many of whom they otherwise might not meet, creating a basis for community exchange. The project also serves children of these community members as volunteers assist with the development of English and other skills that the children must learn in school. The volunteers are another resource, along with teachers and parents, trying to help these children achieve as much as they can.

Student Leaders: Caley Cross and Matilda Tucker Red Hook High School–Bard Model United Nations Initiative The Bard Model United Nations Initiative (BMUNI) works closely with students and faculty at Red Hook High School and also strives to assist in the establishment, development, organization, and education of other Model United Nations (MUN) teams in the Hudson Valley region. High school students meet on a regular basis to learn how to write foreign policy position papers, research and discuss international current affairs, and become confident public speakers. MUN teams attend conferences and engage in an expansive discourse with hundreds of other schools, drafting resolutions Current Projects | 21

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New Orleans Exchange

to solve the world’s most pressing international crises. BMUNI aspires to increase knowledge regarding the international community and to aid in the development of academic and social skills of participating youth.

Student Leaders: Connor Gadek and Jason Toney Red Hook Residential Tutoring Program A group of Bard students holds weekly, one-on-one tutoring sessions with first-time youth offenders incarcerated at the Red Hook Residential Center in Upper Red Hook, New York. The subject areas include reading, writing, math, and GED prep. We tailor specific material to fit individual needs and align with class curricula. Through this project, we hope to offer the students at Red Hook Residential the opportunity to meet or exceed their grade level, to enhance their understanding of fundamental academic material, and to foster in them an appreciation for continued education.

Student Leader: Anias Stambolis-D’Agostino Sister Cities Project The Sister Cities Project, still in its infancy, will ultimately strengthen the bonds between Red Hook, New York (Bard’s hometown), and towns in the Middle East: Kfar Tavor, Israel, and Mas’ha, in the West Bank. Red Hook has a well-developed relationship with Mas’ha and is cultivating its relationship to Kfar Tavor. Working with schools in these towns, the program will connect Israeli and Palestinian youth to the youth of Red Hook. Bard College students work closely with the Red Hook Town Sister Cities Committee to cultivate these relationships. In 2012, Mayor Nedal Amer of Mas’ha visited Bard College and Red Hook and participated in several events.

Student Leader: Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg Surrealist Training Circus The Surrealist Training Circus (STC) is a creative forum at Bard College where students have the opportunity to learn unique skills such as acrobatics, fire breathing, silk dancing, juggling, and poi. Most of these are taught directly to Bard students by other Bard students or Bard alumni/ae, and STC is adding skills all the time. STC members believe that academic and rational training falls short in preparing students for the absurdities of today’s world; in response, they pursue public theater and circus arts, and favor postapocalyptic lifestyles as modes of training for our futures. STC puts on a show at the end of every May that is one of Bard’s most attended events; students—who have worked hard all year to learn and perfect their skills—perform for their peers and community members. We aim to add a smaller show in the fall semester to provide an interactive opportunity with audience members.

Student Leader: Megan Snyder Current Projects | 23

The Upbeats: Bard Music Mentoring Program The Upbeats is dedicated to bringing the joy of music making to children from local communities. Bard music mentors have a passion for music and, more important, for sharing the gift of playing music with others. Lessons are provided to children for whom private instruction would otherwise cause their families financial strain. Children are given individual lessons and the opportunity to participate in music theory workshops. The semester culminates in a small recital put on by the children.

Student Leader: Samantha Burke Young Naturalist Initiative The Young Naturalist Initiative is an environmental education program designed to teach the science of ecology through outdoor exploration. At the heart of the program is the desire to explore natural history with children from surrounding urban communities in a way that fosters respect and stewardship for their environment. The young naturalists will learn new ways of seeing and thinking about their environment through unique partnerships with environmental educators and centers. Skilled and passionate nature instructors from the Bard student community guide children in a wide variety of practical skills. Our areas of expertise include flora and fauna identification, herpetology, ornithology, entomology, wilderness survival skills such as using a map and compass and building a fire, Leave No Trace, Native American lore, edible and medicinal plant lore, ecologically oriented games and activities, and arts and crafts.

Student Leader: Jackson Rollings Young Rhinebeck Youth Program: Life, Learning, and Language Young Rhinebeck’s Life, Learning, and Language program provides a local support network for immigrant children and their families. Rhinebeck, New York, is home to a large population of ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, whose academic and social needs are not always met by the school district alone. Young Rhinebeck strives to meet this need. Tutors from Bard work individually with elementary school students to help with homework and serve as mentors and models of higher academic goals.

The program provides local family advocates and translation services to help maintain steady contact between the families and the school district.

As advocates, mentors, and tutors, we are in constant contact with the Hispanic community in the Hudson Valley, and seek to raise social awareness of immigration and education issues.

Student Leader: Ben Powers

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Students in the Young Naturalist Initiative explore Mohonk Preserve

Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative

JOIN A TLS PROJECT Every project needs volunteers. A TLS student initiated and facilitates each of these projects, but the success of the work always depends on widespread participation. Please get involved. Contact the student leader listed in this booklet.

HAVE YOUR OWN IDEA FOR A PROJECT? Meet with us to discuss how to make your project come to life—even if your idea is still in formation. We are always available.

Paul Marienthal, Director Susanna Armbruster, Assistant Director Room 213, Campus Center 845-758-7056 service@bard.edu

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Selected Project Archive Activists Worldwide AIDS/HIV and Reproductive Education (AWARE): Russia Bard Health Initiative (BHI) Bard Permaculture Initiative Bard Space Program Bard–Sri Lanka Project Bhopal Memory Project Chiapas Solidarity Project Children’s Gardening Program Children’s Rights Are Human Rights, Amnesty International Conference Coalition for Peru Relief Conversations on Education Ghana Project Global Cultural Outreach Great River Sweep Habitat for Humanity at Bard International Tuberculosis Relief Project Kosher/Halal Kitchen and Multipurpose Prayer Space Linden Avenue Middle School Drama Project Media Analysis Project (MAP) Mexico Solidarity Network Delegation Migrant Labor Project “One Year Later” (academic conference on the anti–Iraq War outpouring in 2003) Rhinebeck Connections Homework Help Program Senior Citizen Writing Project SSTOP (Students Stopping Trafficking of Persons) Student Labor Dialogue Thailand Project Trans-Action Initiative Understanding Arabs and Muslims Visible and Invisible Disabilities Awareness Project

For the entire project archive, visit the TLS website: http://www.bard.edu/civicengagement/tls/

Back cover photo: Bard College Farm, by Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’00 All other photos by Bard students Archived Projects | 27

And this is their life, the life of the food makers: wrenches and bolts and oils and fluids of tractors and combines, tilling, seeding, weeding, harvesting, threshing long fields of light brown wheat.

Others in the dark at 4 a.m. in front of the ovens, shelf after shelf, loaf after loaf. One of them puts their whole self into the farming, the other into the baking. And here I sit consuming their labor.

I stare at my slice of warm baguette. It’s a story, each bite a chapter written by a different hand. As I leave the dining room I read on the comment board, “Love the local bread!” and I smile, because I helped write one very short sentence of this extraordinary story.

CARTER VANDERBILT ’15, BARD FOOD INITIATIVE

Bard College PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 845-758-7056 | service@bard.edu | http://inside.bard.edu/tls